UNDER THE TREE

ADDED PFF26 SCREENING

UNDER THE TREE

HAFSTEINN GUNNAR SIGURÐSSON | ICELAND, DENMARK, POLAND, GERMANY | ICELANDIC | 2017 | 91 MIN | PG13

In this wickedly nasty black comedy from Iceland, an argument over an overgrown tree unearths the dark sides of two neighboring families, sparking an all-out war in their apparently peaceful suburb.

Exploring the depraved extremes that an average person will go to when the view from their patio is threatened, satire UNDER THE TREE lays bare the insecurities and pettiness of a group of seemingly well-adjusted suburbanites. After his wife unceremoniously kicks him out of their apartment, sad sack Atli (Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson) limps home to the quiet home of his parents, Baldwin (Sigurður Sigurjónsson) and caustic matriarch Inga (Edda Björgvinsdóttir). Far from being a safe haven, their home turns out to be ground zero in an increasingly heated battle with their next-door-neighbor Konrad and his new, much-younger wife Eybjorg. What begins as a conflict over the untrimmed tree straddling their properties quickly escalates into something much more sinister, with each side flinging barbs, making threats, and picking at their opponents’ deepest insecurities. In a cast of standouts, Björgvinsdóttir gives a particularly memorable performance as quietly unhinged Inga, a woman whose love for the titular plant seemingly exceeds her fondness for her fellow humans. UNDER THE TREE is shocking and hilarious in equal measure, revealing the festering ugliness lying just beneath a quiet town’s perfectly manicured exterior.

CAST: Steinþór Hróar Steinþórsson, Edda Björgvinsdóttir, Sigurður Sigurjónsson, Selma Björnsdóttir

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